Mumbai Terror: Marine Commandos did a fine job

December 02, 2008, (Sawf News) - The role of Indian commandos, including the Marine commandos (MARCOS), during the November 26 terror strike has made the nation proud.
Here are the views of a former MARCOS officer, voiced to the Maharashtra government over email.
"This e-mail is in my private capacity. I am a retired Naval Marine Commando and was the first batch of trainee. Subsequently, I was in Naval HQ looking after policy, tactics and equipment for Marine Commandos. I have been in touch with this force ever since and the Commander of the MARCOS who carried out the mission is personally known to me, was my trainee and we have regular social contact. The aim of this mail is to highlight the positives emerging out of this incident as I see gloom all over and a lot of negative reporting.
As far as I am concerned, the people in Power handling this reaction did an outstanding job for the following reasons:
Indian stood up to be counted when we stood by our stated policy of "No Negotiations with terrorists" irrespective of the collateral damage. They were neutralized professionally with no escape.
The timely intervention, with complete freedom for the professionals to carry out their task as deemed appropriate was indeed an outstanding decision. I call it timely because the MARCOS were there as soon as called, and would have upset the terrorist plans as they never did expect them so soon.
Whoever invited the MARCOS deserves credit. The Marcos kept the terrorist busy and on the run which would have added to their fatigue factor.
The MARCOS were given the freedom to neutralize terrorist and try and assist hostages to safety. The Naval Chief, Adm Bedi deserves credit for allowing the MARCOS to intervene though they are not necessarily meant for such interventions.
Hats off to the MARCOS who went in, irrespective of the consequences and brought back one captured bag with ammo, id etc - remember, they went in the middle of the night, without any preparations and in total dark conditions - Almost blind!
Unlike the politicians, all the soldiers addressing the press were professionals with no blame game or self pat - only professional statements.
I am inclined to say that our response to terror strikes is generally reactive and episodic rather then proactive and sustained. Hence the lapses leading to this incident are many including the fact that India has been soft on terrorists thus far - we indicated our changed stand with this counter strike. We should feel proud that despite all out shortcomings, the Government responded with urgency, using all its resources and allowing the professionals a free hand, with no interference by bureaucrats or politicians.. The response was swift and as brutal as should be. Let us not worry about Israeli's making some adverse comments. We did what best we could with what we have. Israelis never bother about collateral damage when it comes to themselves and hence we ignore their negative statements. Please convey to the Government, that we are proud of you in so far as the response was concerned and the professional manner with which it was allowed to progress."